Rigatoni with Spicy Beef Ragù

Want to make something extra delicious for dinner this week? Check out our favorite recipe for rigatoni with a spicy beef ragu sauce!

This spicy beef ragu is super easy to adjust if you’ve got younger peeps joining you for dinner… just leave out the chili flakes.

Pasta is a weeknight dinner staple. It requires minimal ingredients, it’s a breeze to make, and it feeds a crowd.

This spicy meat ragu is a very substantial sauce that requires a strong pasta. I would not suggest serving this with angel hair pasta. If you don’t have rigatoni, pappardelle or fettuccine is also great.

Although I like my sauce spicy, not everyone agrees with me. If you’d like to make this sauce more kid-friendly, or you want it mild- simply reduce the amount of red pepper flakes or omit it altogether.

Ever make a meat-tomato sauce that ends up separating? Yes, it happens to all of us one time or another. To prevent such mishaps, I have learned to make a bread mixture that helps keep the sauce together. Mushrooms provide a nice meaty flavor when cooked and when mixed with the bread and milk paste, it helps to thicken the sauce while also acting as a stabilizer.

Continue to cook until meat has browned. Then add diced tomato and crushed tomato. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer. Cover pot and allow sauce to simmer for another 15-20 minutes. Check on sauce every 7 minutes or so to stir contents.